In making its listing call of the most reinforced cars over the time decade, list-loving Cars.com makes a valid saucer about the undertaking: it's a integrated blessing. Automakers are rightfully dinged for time mistakes patch existence given a measure of praise for sterilisation -- or at least glossing over -- oversights.
Just to ready things kosher, the list spans 2000-2009, excluding 2010 models. Vehicles had to be currently available for purchase as a new help to be eligible for the list. Here they are, from the most vastly reinforced to the much meliorate but not quite stupendous:
1. Chevrolet Malibu.
The Malibu has been a critical and income success since its redesign for 2008, especially in terms of its interior calibre and refinement. It's not only competitive with directive midsize sedans, it surpasses a few in some respects, including mileage. Its spot atop our most-improved list, though, has more to do with its slummy display in its preceding digit generations. It was a rental-car staple finished 2003, followed by an overly hyped redesign in 2004 whose peculiar styling, unclear steering and interior calibre didn't deliver.
2. Ford Mustang.
The Mustang's redesign for 2005 prefabricated it a very good car — and, at the time, the only remaining help in the muscle-car class. It's on this list, though, because its predecessor was beat. The 2004 help year was the car's 25th year on a platform author had daylong since abandoned for another purposes. Those 'Stangs shuddered out of dealerships as if bolts and welds were missing. The seating position and interior quality were equally unrefined. Come 2005, the new Mustang's retrospective styling was the highlight of machine shows and the driver of many, some sales, but the new chassis is what really kept this help in the game.
3. Toyota Prius.
The 2004-09 Toyota Prius is a occurrence — not simply because it's so efficient, inexpensive and reliable, nor because it has singlehandedly brought most global espousal of new and scary technology, thus earning its place among obloquy such as Model-T, Mustang and Caravan. No, it's a occurrence because even when it yielded its function to the next-generation 2010 Prius, it still reigned as the most efficient and inexpensive hybrid on the market. The original Prius that was sold in the U.S. — from 2001 to 2003 — was a technological triumph for its time, but it looked same the Echo auto sedan's bigger brother, and it was nothing same the phenomenon that presently took its place.
4. Hyundai Sonata.
Hyundai's revival in the U.S. rests on a three-legged stool, of which the 1999-2005 Sonata midsize sedan is digit leg (the other digit being the Santa Fe SUV and a groundbreakingly big warranty). Even so, the Sonata wasn't exactly exceptional. It was a step up from the preceding generation, yes, but it had a lingering low-budget closing and was a step behindhand the collection leaders in crash tests — managing to score Poor in a lateral collision in spite of its standard side-impact air bags. The 2006 redesign was a sucker-punch to the competition — a bargain-priced entry loaded with standard features, including six air bags and stability control. It had intense styling and competitive interior quality, both of which improved in 2009, along with power and efficiency.5. Nissan Altima.
A little-known fact: The Nissan Altima is the third-best-selling midsize sedan in the U.S., nipping at the heels of Honda Accord and Toyota Camry. Its acquisition since 2002 is how it's provided sportier looks and driving than the bounteous dogs have, without sacrificing livability. Back in 2000, however, the once-successful Altima had outworn its welcome. It was technically a compact car, so it competed as much with Nissan's redesigned Sentra (also compact) as it did with the Camry and Accord — and forfeited on both counts. The upsizing was a beatific move, but the execution — in the Altima's 2002 and 2007 redesigns — was even better.
6. Kia Sportage.
Rather than picking a newborn name, Kia resurrected the Sportage name in 2005 after a two-year hiatus, so perhaps this is a technicality. We're citing the Sportage auto SUV because it represents a couple of essential milestones: the move from truck-based to car-based SUVs, and Kia's change from a punch line to a alarming mart competitor. Though a decent-looking little SUV, the 2000-02 Sportage was based on a rear-wheel-drive pushcart platform with old-fashioned recirculating-ball steering, an crude drivetrain, a noisy inland and — at best — 19 mpg. The 2005-09 Sportage, sister to the Hyundai Tucson, is a roomier, more refined car-based model that gets 22 mpg despite its additional features and reinforced (if mediocre) crashworthiness. It still isn't a class-leader, but the Sportage has become a daylong way.
7. Cadillac CTS.
When the Cadillac CTS hit the mart in 2003, American auto writers went overboard with praise. The car's handling was the closest any husbandly automobile had become to competing with European luxury sedans, which was promising, but the outdoor styling looked like it had been yanked soured the drawing board unfinished. The dashboard design was inspired by — we're not making this up — a tower PC. (What says \"luxury\" more than something you hide under your desk?) Incremental updates helped that car, but the CTS makes the list because of the brilliant 2008-09 model, perhaps the most world-class vehicle ever to become discover of Detroit. The styling, performance and inland calibre are stunning and quintessentially American. The current car's reliability is below average, but the first generation was modify worse. Hey, improvement is improvement!
8. Mercedes-Benz C-Class.
The painfully plain 2000 C-Class counted among its engines a supercharged 2.3-liter four-cylinder that had all the refinement of a burr grinder. Its aesthetics were as appealing as a large Mercedes, which is to say ... yawn. Thankfully, a 2001 redesign updated the C's exterior styling, though it still looked like an S-Class that had shrunk in the wash, and it had nothing on the BMW 3 Series in terms of action or youth appeal. For 2008, Mercedes got the message, and the C-Class leaves the decennium with edgier styling, more interior space and modify whatever sporty reflexes to lure buyers away from Audi and BMW.
The Escalade might not be the most popular help — or in the most popular container collection — as the current decade winds down, but 10 years past Lincoln was dominating imbibe culture with a concept any reasonable auto exec would have thought ridiculous: a full-size wealth SUV. GM, which was flooded of reasonable execs, saw the popularity — and the $15,000 profit on each Navigator sold — and promptly maltreated whatever Cadillac badges and leather on a Chevrolet Tahoe and called it the 1999 Escalade. Not enough lipstick, likewise such pig. But Cadillac went all-out for the 2001 model, which leapfrogged the Navigator in terms of noesis and interior quality, and before long it was the Caddy that you saw in the hands of hip-hop artists, actual and imagined. The Navigator never recovered. For posterity, drive a late-model Escalade or Escalade Hybrid before they're extinct. You'll be impressed.10. Saturn Vue.
The Saturn Vue was in a relatively beatific position when it launched in 2002. The nascent car-based compact-SUV mart had only a handful of models. Unfortunately, the Vue was underwhelming. Even for its time, the interior had wrinkled patches and plenty of noise, and the electric power control wasn't primed for prime time. The continuously uncertain automatic transmission reinforced on some earlier examples, but the technology got even less attitude then than it does now. The 2008 Vue redesign garnered a activity more often attributed to the all-new Chevy Malibu: \"This is a GM interior?!\" The classed-up Vue is worlds meliorate than the original, but it's ease not generally meliorate than its compact SUV competitors — the oldest of which hold their advance to this day. The Vue's a bit small, a bit inefficient and a lot overlooked. In short: too little, too late. This is the news of the entire Saturn brand, whose early potential was squandered and whose modify is probable near.
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